The building leadership team would also determine how they intended to "catch" students exhibiting the appropriate behaviors. Specific praise is extremely important in increasing the reoccurrence of appropriate behavior. Some schools decide to give out small pieces of paper labeled as "gotchas". All staff hand the gotchas with specific praise to students as they witness appropriate behaviors in the common areas.
Gotcha Resources
• apprentice.jpg
• Bucks4Bundles.xls
• Champion Chip PBIS.pdf
• Chip Reward Menu.doc
• class reward for gotcha menu.jpg
• Comet Card Rewards-SOAR at top.doc
• Comet Card.pdf
• ComponentsofPBIS.doc
• dayswithoutaccident.jpg
• free rewards for students.doc
• freerewardsforstudents.doc
• goldenplungeraward.jpg
Conclusion
These
are just a few examples of the procedures and practices that occur during the
initial training for primary prevention. Precise facets of the training make it
specific to each building. The important features are: 1) most schools realize
similar results; 2) implementation looks completely different at each site,
based on the needs of their specific unit and 3) ongoing decisions are made
based on data driven results.
It
goes without saying that we want to prevent the major "upsurges in
targeted behaviors" that we hear about in the news: violent acts against
teachers or other students, theft, bullying behavior, drug use, and the like.
However, research has taught us that efforts to prevent these serious problems
are more successful if the "host environment"—the school as a
whole—supports the adoption and use of evidence-based practices. Practices that
meet these criteria include teaching and rewarding students for complying with
a small set of basic rules for conduct, such as "be safe," be
responsible," and "be respectful." These rules translate into
sets of expectations that differ according to various settings in the school.
Thus, on the playground "be safe" means stay within boundaries and
follow the rules of the game. In hallways and on stairs, it means to keep your
hands and feet to yourself and to walk on the right side. Some parents and
educators believe that students come to school knowing these rules of conduct,
and that those who don't follow them simply should be punished. However,
research and experience has taught us that systematically teaching behavioral
expectations and rewarding students for following them is a much more positive
approach than waiting for misbehavior to occur before responding. It also
establishes a climate in which appropriate behavior is the norm. Finally, the
use of Primary Prevention strategies has been shown to result in dramatic
reductions in the number of students being sent to the office for discipline in
elementary and middle schools across the United States and Canada. In effect,
by teaching and encouraging positive student behavior (i.e., positive behavior
support), we reduce the "white noise" of common but constant student
disruption that distracts us from focusing intervention expertise on the more
serious problems mentioned above.
Primary Prevention, through positive behavior
support, works for over 80% of all students in a given school (based on a
criterion of the number of students who have one or fewer office discipline
referrals per month). But obviously, no intervention works across the board for
all students. For a variety of reasons, some students do not respond to the
kinds of efforts that make up Primary Prevention, just as some children do not
respond to initial teaching of academic subjects. Some children need booster
shots and some children need intensive interventions.
Putting into place systematic Primary Prevention
strategies offers two advantages: First, it reduces the "water
torture" caused by large numbers of office discipline referrals for minor
problems. As we suggested earlier, this volume of referrals obscures and
distracts our attention from more serious problems. Second, having a system for
documenting the occurrence of targeted behaviors (e.g., office discipline
referrals) provides a way to determine which students need more intensive
intervention. For example, the criterion for considering the need for moving
into secondary prevention for a student or group of students might be 4 or more
office discipline referrals in a month. Without Primary Prevention, of course,
the number of students meeting this criteria and needing additional help will
be much larger.
Link to Section 1| Link to Section 2|Link to Section 2.1|Link to Section 2.3| Link to Related Sites